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Wildcat coach Matt Koehn-Fairbanks said the Fox sisters are going to get their kills, but he was pleased to see other players step up. Jaden Jakubowski chipped in nine kills and freshman Brooke Poppert finished with five.

Setter Claira Thede had 35 assists.

“I thought we got the help we needed from other players,” Koehn-Fairbanks said. “It was not one person. Lesley and Hayley are going to have their runs but it wasn’t just them. Jaden and Brooke both played well for us. Claira does a great job of running our offense. It was a nice efficient night tonight and we played a clean match tonight.”

Doniphan-Trumbull, which lost to St. Paul in four sets Thursday, suffered a blow before tournament matches got under way Tuesday. Maddie Fitch suffered a broken nose during school and did not play.

Considering the circumstances, Cardinal coach Gina Fitch, Maddie’s mother, said she was OK with how the Cardinals played, especially after coming off a five-set win over Arcadia/Loup City in the quarterfinals Monday.

“We had a do a last-minute lineup change so we had some girls who didn’t play at all on varsity this year,” coach Fitch said. “I thought the girls handled it very well. And after last night’s match, which wasn’t one of our better matches, for us to come out and hang with St. Paul, I was proud with how we played.”

St. Paul had to answer runs from Doniphan-Trumbull in the first two sets. After seeing a 20-14 lead trimmed to 21-19 in the first set, Lesley Fox and Jakubowski each had kills that helped the Wildcats pull away.

And then, holding on to a 20-18 lead in the second set, a Jakubowski kill gave serve back to the Wildcats. After a Cardinal error, Hayley Fox hammered home three straight kills to end the second set.

McKenna Niemoth helped Doniphan-Trumbull gain the early advantage in the third with three kills and a block for a 6-2 lead. She had six of her team-high 12 kills in the third.

But St. Paul’s balance was too much with Lesley Fox leading the way with five kills in the set, including one at match point to put the Wildcats into the final.

Koehn-Fairbanks said the focus for the match with Doniphan-Trumbull was “here and now.”

“We try to come up with a word or a phrase before every match and that’s what we came up with. Reason was we want to forget about that last play, we’re going to play this next point and I think the girls really did a good job of not getting down when Doniphan-Trumbull makes a big play,” he said.

In the other match, Kearney Catholic had its way with Ord in the first two sets. The Chants did show some fight in the third after trailing 24-21. Danielle Bruha had a kill and a block and then a Cora Svoboda ace serve tied it at 24-all.

But Kearney Catholic got the sweep with kills from Jordan Streit and Nicole Shundoff.

Anna Squiers led Kearney Catholic with 13 kills, 12 assists, three ace serves and two blocks.

Ord committed six errors during Kearney Catholic’s first seven points of the match.

Chants coach Wendy Alexander said that set the tone for the match. Ord had 22 errors, which included five missed serves.

“We came in and everyone felt confident but we looked tight from the very beginning,” she said. “It’s tough to play against a great team when you make the errors that we did, especially at the start of the match.

“The kids know that. We got quieter when we made those errors and we didn’t battle tonight like we did the last we played them (a 2-1 Kearney Catholic win Sept. 29). It was disappointing but hopefully the girls learn from it.”

Ord and Doniphan-Trumbull will play in the third-place match at 6 p.m. Thursday.

As for St. Paul moving onto the final, Koehn-Fairbanks said he knows the Wildcats will have to play well to beat Kearney Catholic and win the Lou-Platte Conference tournament for the first time since 2013.

“It’s going to take a great team effort on our part,” Koehn-Fairbanks said. “They are a typical Kearney Catholic team. It doesn’t matter who they lose or who they gain, they just have a great team that plays their system very well. They have great players at every position. It will be a great match.”

Chadron falls to Ord in semifinals

Chadron’s Chandler Hageman (23) puts down a powerful kill while Ord’s Allison Welniak (8) goes up for a block on Friday afternoon in the semifinal round of the Class C-1 state tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. Also pictured, in the background, is Chadron’s Allie Johnson (13).

LINCOLN – As Chadron volleyball head coach Don Matt walked to the locker room Friday following his team’s 3-0 loss to Ord in the semifinal round of the Class C-1 state tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena, he knew exactly what he wanted to tell his squad.

He wanted them to know how proud he was of the way they battled against one of the best teams in the state.

“What I told them in the locker room was, ‘I’ll never doubt how hard you guys play. You guys fought hard and gave it everything you had,’” he said. “I’m so pleased with them. This is such a great group of girls.”

The No. 3 seeded Chanticleers (31-3) may have earned a sweep over the second-seeded Cardinals (33-5), but it was far from easy.

Chadron rallied from a 17-9 deficit in game one to pull back to within 23-22 and then 24-23 before Ord held on for a 25-23 victory. Chadron shrugged off the first-set loss and bolted to a 20-12 advantage in game two, but the Chanticleers managed to put together a rally themselves for a 28-26 victory.

Chadron continued to battle tough in the third set, but Ord got on a roll midway through the frame and went on to win 25-17 to advance to Saturday’s state championship match.

“We never gave up in any of the sets. We were always pushing hard and trying to get better,” Chadron junior outside hitter Alexandria Nobiling said. “We gave it everything we had.”

Although Chadron came up short of reaching the state final, the Cardinals’ performance no doubt earned them some more respect in C-1. Coming into the state tournament, Ord was ranked No. 2 in the Omaha World-Herald’s Class C-1 Top 10 poll behind Kearney Catholic, while Chadron was No. 6. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Chadron moved up in the final ratings.

“That was a big step for us, showing everyone that we deserved to be here,” Nobiling said. “We worked hard for it.”

Chadron will look to put the finishing touches on its memorable season Saturday when it plays Columbus Scotus in the third-place match. Scotus suffered a heartbreaker in its semifinal match as three-time defending state champion Kearney Catholic held on for a 25-22, 23-25, 12-25, 25-16, 16-14 win. First serve between Chadron and Scotus (25-7) is set for 8 a.m. MST at Lincoln Northeast High School.

Chadron, which defeated Bishop Neumann 3-2 on Thursday for its first win at state since 1996, remains highly driven, Nobiling said.

“We’re ready to come back after this loss and compete hard tomorrow,” she said. “We want to finish it out strong.”

Against Ord, the Cardinals made some early miscues, including some missed serves, that helped the Chanticleers surge ahead by nearly 10 points in the first set. Chadron didn’t wilt away, though, as it flashed its power at the net while whittling the deficit down to just 22-21. Ord still barely led at 23-22 and 24-23 before finally prevailing on a kill.

“I was proud of our kids for fighting through it and giving ourselves a chance at the end,,” Matt said.

Chadron looked to be on its way to tying the match in game two, building a 20-12 lead. But Ord put together a 12-4 flurry to even the set at 24-24. The game was tied again at 25-25 and 26-26 before the Chanticleers scored the final two points for the victory.

“It was a huge momentum loss on our part,” Nobiling said.

Matt credited Ord’s defense for helping it rally in the second game.

“They had some big blocks, and they had some nice digs and were able to get attacks out of it, and we didn’t do a real great job at the net at the end of that second set,” he said.

Ball control, he added, was also a key factor in the match.

“We just were a little bit inconsistent with our ball control, and they picked up their ball control a little bit,” he said. “That was the name of the game right there. They were getting good swings on the ball, and we were being limited to one option most of the time. When we passed the ball and had plenty of options, we did good things.”

Matt said his players did their best to keep their heads up and overcome that heartbreaking second set.

“They came off the court, and they didn’t have any bad looks in their eyes or anything like that. I think it was more a case of, ‘OK, we can do this.’ But then I think they tried to do too much instead of just relaxing and letting the game come to them,” he said.

Ord coach Wendy Alexander, whose team is trying to win the school’s first state volleyball championship since 2007, said she was pleased with her team’s play overall.

“We came out in set one, and I thought we played a very clean match,” she said. “I think we only had three unforced errors. Chadron has a very powerful offense, but we played clean, we played consistent, and I think that was the difference in set one.

“In set two our offense slowed down, [but] we had kind of a momentum turn from a great dig that turned out to be a kill. And then our offense sped up – everyone had a little bit more fire – and we were able to come back.

“In set three I felt like we did a better job of blocking at the net – Chadron did an excellent job of blocking in set one and the first part of set two. And when we sped our offense up, we were able to get some hitters in some one on one situations, and when we get that we feel like those are situations we can win.”

Alexander said she was impressed with Chadron’s performance, especially in the front row.

“I think Chadron’s front row, at any point, is as good as any front row we’ve played against,” she said. “Jadyn McCartney is a smart ball player. She hits at excellent angles and does a nice job of staying composed all the time on the court. … They’ve got a lot of big, strong athletes. We felt like comparing team for team, we’re a pretty strong, physical team across the net, but I thought Chadron was just as strong and physical coming into this match.”

McCartney led Chadron in kills with 12, and she also had 12 digs. Nobiling collected a team-high 15 digs and recorded five kills. Chandler Hageman finished with 10 kills, seven blocks, and two ace serves, and Jayden Garrett had 30 set assists. Teagan Westemeier had three kills and nine digs.

Among Ord’s statistical leaders was Andrea Carson with 13 kills. Kathryn Grint had seven kills, and Cora Svoboda had four ace blocks and three kills.

Ord’s Svoboda Unbeaten in Pursuit of State Title
Bob Jensen | Publisher

Ord’s Cade Svoboda puts the finishing touches on one of his 19 wins to open the 2015-16. A returning state tournament runner-up, Svoboda has his eyes on a state title here in a few weeks.
Bob Jensen/Huskerland
Unlike our hero Peter LaFleur in the movie Dodgeball, Cade Svoboda has a goal. It’s to win a state wrestling championship.

He came close last year, winning 37 matches and reaching the Class C state final at 170, only to come up one win short of the gold medal. Svoboda’s wrestling with a purpose has paid extra dividends, as he’s rolled to 19 straight wins to open the season, capturing the 182 championship at last weekend’s Central City Invitational.

“Cade has always been a great wrestler on top but over the last couple of seasons I have seen him gain a lot more confidence wrestling on bottom and on his feet. At about 6-2 he does a great job of using his length to his advantage,” says Ord head coach Justin Swedburg. “He has improved overall as a wrestler and you can see his confidence when he is out on the mat. He has also greatly improved his strength. Over the summer he spent a lot of his time in the weight room and going to different wrestling camps.

Svoboda is ranked No. 1 in Class C at 182 and beyond that has proven to be an outstanding all-around high school athlete, three times being named to the all-district football team, at a different position each time. Beyond that he’s also an outstanding rodeo cowboy, having finished as state runner-up in bareback riding, and twice qualifying for nationals.

A well-rounded young man, Svoboda is also an outstanding leader and a brilliant student and role model at his school.

“Cade demonstrates leadership not only as a wrestler but as a person. He does things the right way and he is a good person which I believe correlates directly to being a successful athlete,” says Coach Swedburg. “He is almost always the first person to practice and weights and he shows up with a positive attitude ready to work hard without excuses and he expects the same from his teammates. Cade takes care of his business in school carrying a 4.0 GPA, and he is also very willing to volunteer his time to help others.”

Svoboda plans to attend the University of Nebraska and will eventually enter the medical field.